Originally published in 1952. This book addresses one of the most pressing problems in town planning – the proper place of industry in our towns. The author writes from the standpoint of a town planner who realizes that factories are just as important as houses and schools, and that if industry does not prosper, all our schemes for urban reconstruction must fail through the lack of the necessary resources. In the course of his research he has visited hundreds of factories to get the necessary facts at first hand. Almost as a by-product he describes in simple terms the manufacture of such varied objects (to paraphrase Lewis Carroll) as "ships and needles and silverware; chocolates and glue." Plenty of photographs of industrial buildings in Britain and abroad are included, which show how great an architectural transformation is possible, and that an industrial area can become one of the showplaces of a town.